The invention relates to a housing for an opto-electronic semiconductor component operable at low temperatures, with the housing being in communication with a cooler operating in accordance with the Joule-Thomson effect.
Certain semiconductor components have to be cooled down to low temperatures in order to attain their optimum performance data. This is particularly true for infrared sensitive detectors and infrared lasers. Typical operating temperatures of these semiconductor components are the boiling temperatures of nitrogen (77.degree. K.), air (79.degree. K.) or argon (87.degree. K.).
The housing for such a detector generally consists of an evacuated double-walled container comprising a window for transmission of the infrared radiation and electric bushings for the current supply and/or the signal evaluation of the semiconductor component. The immediate surrounding area of the semiconductor component is cooled with a cooler operating in accordance with the Joule-Thomson principle, the Peltier principle or the Stirling principle.
With the known devices of this type it is possible to reach the required low operating temperatures within a few minutes. The operating time of the semiconductor component is unlimited as long as the cooling of the cooler employed continues to be effective. For certain applications, however, the comparatively slow cooling down of the semiconductor component is undesirable, and long maintenance of the operating temperature is not required. In these cases, rapid cooling down within, for example, less than ten seconds, is desired, while the maximum operating duration may be less than 1 to 5 minutes.